Disclosing loans

Embattled MP Maurice Williamson is facing fresh trouble after it emerged he failed to declare a top-of-the-range $899 smartphone.

The Pakuranga MP claims he did not have to disclose the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone in a register of pecuniary interests, released this week, because it was a long-term loan and not a gift.

Prime Minister John Key and Communications and Technology Minister Amy Adams were also given phones — Key got three — but both declared them on the gifts register.

Williamson told the Herald on Sunday Samsung contacted him through a public relations firm to offer him an “extended trial”.

Williamson said he was known as a fan of technology and companies often wanted to show him their latest products. “It will go back to Samsung and hence, no gift occurred.”

There is still a benefit from the loan. But does it meet the threshold?

The Registrar of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests, Sir Maarten Wevers, said it should be on the register if Williamson had more than $500 worth of benefit from the phone over a 12-month period.

“If you were lending someone a house for a year or a car for a year and it has a value of more than $500, I would expect that to be included in your return,” he said. “If you’re in doubt you should declare. That’s the rule of thumb.”

Sir Maarten said he would check with the Office of the Clerk on Monday to see whether there were for any precedents for this sort of thing

Constitutional law expert Andrew Geddis said Williamson was wrong to say it was not a gift. “There’s still a gift involved in that he’s gaining free the use of this device for the period in which it is in his possession,” the Otago University professor said.

I agree with Sir Maarten and Andrew. However the “value” of the loan would seem to be under the $500 threshold.

One could treat the $899 as an interest free loan. At even 10% interest hat is just $90 a year of value.

Or one could take a depreciation type approach and say a mobile phone tends to last for three years, so $900 over three years is $300 a year of value – still uner the threshold.

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Comments (54)

gump

There’s no penalty for declaring it. So he should have declared it.

The most amusing thing about this story is the line “An internal Samsung email obtained by the Herald on Sunday shows Williamson inquired about the company’s programme of “gifting” products to politicians.”

OneTrack

ffs – so the left stream media dirt machine now on the trail of Williamson. An $899 phone? Haven’t they got anything better to report on? And they wonder why nobody except Labour voters are reading the herald anymore.

mikenmild

Don the Kiwi

He perhaps should have declared it – but FFS – we-re now getting so bloody nit-picky its a joke. There is a human element involved.

Who raised the issue – probably that fat poofter who’s being ranting about Juditch Collins for the past month or so.
I bet it wouldn’t be too difficult to rake up some shit on him that could be made to stick.

Its time the govt. fought fire with fire. Sick to death of these petty attacks – expecially where there is no substance to the claims, and it is purely personal attacks.

mikenmild

I have to agree Don (except for your homophobic comment), although maybe government MPs could make themselves lesser targets by declaring gifts properly, not trying to influence police investigations and not lying to Parliament.

Ben2001

I would be curious to know why Samsung thinks it appropriate to give/lend phones to government ministers? Why do ministers think it appropriate to accept them? Even if they are declared it once again heightens the public perception that ministers can be bought. Like Maurice I am interested in technology but somehow I do not think Samsung would lend me a phone if I asked.

As for MW he is either gormless or arrogant; I suspect the former. He is essentially using the Len Brown defence in saying it was not a gift; the same way LB. Tried to claim room upgrades and free rooms were not gifts.

It seems to me that politicians of whatever political hue have a permanent sense of entitlement. Had it been a public servant accepting this gift he or she would have been shown the door. Even the great perk buster Rodney, allowed himself to be ‘corrupted’ by the whole rotten system.

It is news items such as this that reinforce public perception that politicians are in it for what they can get. It is no good Cunliffe and co getting all high and mighty. The rest are just as bad, itching for the day when they form the government and can replace the current bunch at the trough.

themono

I gather from a quick google that the average lilfespan of a phone is closer to 18 months in the US (no idea if the same applies here, but wouldn’t be surprised). If you’re depreciating that linearly then you’d hit $600 over a year.

(Not that I’m an accountant or an expert on cellphone lifespans, just thought your 36 month assertion seemed a bit off).

dime

Nukuleka

This is becoming ludicrous. I’m not a fan of the man nor do I approve of the problems he has caused for John Key and the National Party, but for heaven’s sake this is trivial stuff. If any opposition party jumps on this bandwagon then that is further evidence that they are truly focussing on the BIG issues that NZ faces!

Ed Snack

Themono, you can probably sell a 3 year old Samsung for $100, an S4/5 anyway, three years is sort of the reasonable lifespan of these devices. Only iPhones still retain significant value at that point it seems.

There is/was a thing for fancy phones to be “lent” to opinion formers, Vodafone used to have a program to gift a few phones to such people. Apple doesn’t but they rarely ever do, but Sammie are right into that sort of thing.

I reckon it’s pretty trivial and as a three year loan (convenient fiction) it is possibly under the $500 disclosure level, but why risk it. This is a case of kicking someone while they’re down, but Williamson the life-long trougher deserves it, and any other derision that comes his way. I wonder if he’ll get the hint and decide to spend more time with his family (poor sods) after the election.

Sir Cullen's Sidekick

But what is the penalty for a non declaration???
Who would enforce that “penalty”?

Unless i am way off the planet, this is not a breech of any Statute or regulation issued pursuant to a statute. It is rather like the Cabinet Manual crap. People write/speak of that as if it is Statute law. It is simply an executive administrative fiat….put together for the guidance of apparently wise/dumb men /women. 🙂

backster

The fact that he asked for the gift/loan makss this anything but trivial. How many MPs ask businesses “what is your policy on phones (meals/hotel rooms/personal benefits) for MPs? The sense of entitlement by MPs generally has gone way over the threshhold to corruption. A major investigation is needed.

mikenmild

themono

@Ed Snack

Just checked Trademe for prices on the Galaxy S III (which is now two years old) and it seems to be around $300 prevailing price. So you’re clearly right that these phones do still hold a decent bit of value after 18 months.

tvb

If in doubt declare it for f***s sake. Why try and be smart and say it is a loan. I get the impression the PM could not get rid of Williamson fast enough though he has done some quite good work as a Minister.

Kea

Once again Labour approach an election with no coherent policy and resort to ever increasing petty attacks on the Nats, (well that and infighting and back stabbing each other) 🙂

Who can forget the hilarious pretend outrage of the media, when Key had a cuppa with some guy. ? No wonder Labour has become a minor party increasingly desperate to align with someone, anyone, to have some sort of influence.

Kea

What sort of a fucxkwit

milky, please moderate your language. Its a Sunday and children might be reading. I know your bitter about the collapse of the USSR & the Klark govt, but please don’t lash out blindly at the good people of KB 🙂

ShawnLH

bc

Is that true, he begged for a freebie phone?
What a loser. Isn’t that the type of thing Len Brown does?
As if his salary and perks wasn’t enough. If it was a Labour MP everyone here would be making comments about pigs with their snouts in the trough.

mikenmild

milky, please moderate your language. Its a Sunday and children might be reading.

If parent’s are stupid enough to allow their children on the computer and especially the internet to read controversial blogs like Kiwiblog, then those parents deserve everything their children will become, by being exposed to such things.

The children reading this – please note the behaviour of the ‘adults’ on this site, and do everything you can to try and not be like them when you grow up! (and whatever you do DON’T vote National – it will make you a grumpy old bugger like KEA) 😛

The answer from Key should have been; “oh Please”
when we investigate the amount of tax The Herald and its stable mates pay in NZ.
Are they like IAG and other Aussie companies who have been rorting the taxpayer of NZ for years?

I recall there was every attempt to do so.
I would prefer to see a lot more money spent on screwing the arse of these leeches than bothering individual Kiwi’s.

I can understand the phone thingy sounding like a con – but when a person is an MP, they are busy – the small stuff gets lost among the important stuff. Its hardly a shooting offence, and anyone that attempts to make something of it (regardless of which party the member belongs to) is frankly being rather pathetic.

Yes, now its been highlighted, I’m sure he will remember to declare next time (if there is a next time for him).
However, I’m not all nice 😛 – ringing the cops is an unforgiven sin still!

MT_Tinman

David Garrett

PEB: I tend to agree with you..although Maurice was a refreshing exception to the bland boring usual rump of the Nats..never daring to be even mildly controversial because it might have caused them problems down the track….

OneTrack

“long-term loan” equals bending the rules to see if they’ll break. Just like Cunliffe’s trust with anonymous donors, “It will go back… and hence, no gift occurred.” Politicians would do themselves a favour if they worked to the spirit rather than the letter of the rules.

Jaffa

Actually, I am more interested in WHO is loaning these phones. I’m wondering what I can offer to get one – is it possible to ‘sell’ your vote – I mean if the pollies can ‘sell’ their time – why can’t I / we sell our political ‘allegiance’?

calendar girl

Do you have any political allegiance, Judith, for sale or otherwise? From the many of your near-6,000 posts that I’ve read on KB over the years, it’s not easy to detect a set of consistent political principles.

I enjoy reading your contributions (aside from the Bain- and Collins-related crusades which I have long scrolled past), and I welcome your occasionally-mischievous humour. But at times I struggle to understand whether there is an underlying philosophy that guides your thinking. It’s not mandatory to have one, of course, so forgive my curiosity if it so happens that you prefer to assess issues against ad hoc yardsticks.

I honestly don’t know who I will vote for this time round, and have no particular political allegiance.

The only thing I feel for sure is that we have strayed away from admirable politics and entered the dark realm where political campaigning has become more about personalities, than what is good for this country (inflamed of course by the media).

We are getting closer to the election and I still don’t know what the policies are for the areas I am interested in. Instead I can tell you who is receiving which gift, who is not declaring what they should do, and who is cuddling up to whom – none of which will tell me how my life is going to be affected by whichever party is elected – in short, there is nothing (or very little) getting through to the electorate, that is of the least bit of use to someone like me – a ‘politically confused’ voter.

(I often make comments ‘tongue in cheek’ – an old habit of trying to make people think of the ‘other side’ and don’t always believe in what I’m saying! It’s something I do to my students to make them think beyond the ‘obvious’ )

gump

calendar girl

Thanks, Judith. I endorse your comments about the nature of modern political campaigns and the media’s self-chosen role in relation to them. Elections waged on the basis of trivialities, personalities and personal slurs – rather than on comprehensive manifestoes scrutinised and compared dispassionately by competent media – are not particularly conducive to a healthy democracy.

I hope that the electoral landscape becomes clearer for you as the year unfolds, and that the ultimate outcome delivers most of whatever you are searching for. There’s no prospect of seeing in that time any improvement in our country’s unprofessional journalistic standards. Sadly, those of us who care about who governs in the best interests of the country will just have to do the analyses ourselves, as best we can.